Gina's social & psychological distance to Spanish language, culture & speakers

Social Distance

1. Social dominance. Whose social group is more dominant?

As we are in U.S.A the dominant group here is English native speakers, but on the other hand there is big group of Spanish native speaker, like mexican people that is not a minor group, the thing is that the Spanish speakers have to adapt to English not on the other way...


2. Integration pattern. How much do learners integrate, or do they do most things apart from the mainstream?

The learner can integrate to the Spanish culture here, because as I said before is not a minor group so they (Spanish group) do some events or places to get closer to each other and their culture, depens on the kind of learner and the motivation that she might have to attend o get closer to the Spanish culture.


3. Enclosure. To what extent does learner's group have their own resources for interaction, such as church, publications, club?

Gina has a lot of places to interact to Spanish people but her main resource is us (the chilean group).


4. Size. How large is the group?

Gina is not affected about this point since she is in the bigger group (English speakers).


5. Cohesiveness. How much does the group "stick together"?

Gina does not belong to a group of learners.


6. Cultural congruence. How are the cultural patterns and customs of the home culture and the target culture alike or different?

Both culture are very different but in a way they do really well together in terms that they need each other and also because U.S.A is now a country who mixes a lot of different cultures not only the Spanish.


7. Attitude. What attitudes do the home and target cultural groups have toward one another?

I believe that Gina has a very positive attitude toward the Spanish culture since she wants to learn the language.


8. Intended length of residence. How long does the learner intend to stay in the new country?

Gina lives in the U.S.



Psychological Distance


1. Motivation. Does the learner want to learn the new language?

Gina is very motivated to learn Spanish and she asked us to help her to reach that goal.


2. Attitude. How does the learner fell toward the target-culture group?

Since we are the target-culture for her I believe that she seems to be very comfortable surrounded by Spanish speakers.


3. Culture shock. Is the learner suffering culture shock?

There is no culture shock for Gina because she is going to learn Spanish in her country.

School visit to Bridgeport & Brewster

My firts impression of the first city (Bridgeport) was that It looks very poor so I imagined that the school were look the same, but it didn't in fact I loved it! because I noticed that in the school they not only had good teachers but good facilities too and that is important to create a good environment to the students, I found that the teachers were more affective to their students than the teachers of Brewster, also I found the way of teaching were very mechanic (Brewster) not natural I don't feel the same as the other school, but the thing that I do remember for the Bridgeport school was the fact that they gave to much importance to the mexican people, but when they teach english to those kids they only had one room!!! (to the pull-out class) and they were all mixed together so you can tell how awful was the noice in there.
In Brewster, as I write before, I found the environment very cold the relationship between theacher and student was very poor in terms of that the students solved their doubts with a classmate or by themselves the teacher didn't play a main role, that is good in a way, but in this case with those students that really needs some special attention you must be there for them!!!, also I found mechanic the way of teaching with physical response, I belive that is useful if you plan it or if you create it in the momment, but not that useful or interactive if you only read the statement that are in the teacher's book (scripted curriculum).
I like the visit to those cities and I think that I am learning more things every day from here, ones that can be useful to put into practice in my country and some of them that I don't , but now I know that, and that is why I came here.

Class Activity...

The use of Digital Cameras in the Classroom...

I chose this kind of technology because I think that nobody's has explored it yet & I found really interesting things to do with Digital Cameras.
Level: Basic - Intermediate

• First you have to be conscious that kids do not know the value of the object that they are carrying, that is why students must be taught proper handling and safety rules when using the camera. If you do one-on-one training sessions with students to ensure that they understand how to handle the camera you are ready for the next step.
• Student must take appropriate pictures, the ease of using a digital camera allows students to snap many nonsense pictures.
• Privacy is another issue to keep in mind is when publishing photographs you have to have permission of parents & you have to know your school's policies.
• Remember that digital photography isn't just about taking pictures; it's about using the camera as a tool to help explore and understand other subjects!

Activity:


Write a class novel and illustrate it with live-action photos of your students.

Evaluation:

With this activity you can develop their writing skill & creative too, also make it more fun than a plain writing activity, plus interaction is another thing that you can develop with this activity due to the interaction right amount of time maybe can be an issue because children can be very restless.
Autonomy is a skill that with this activity they can reinforce because they have the responsibility of taking care of the digital camera & also of making a good job.
I believe that the 4 skill are develop here because they have to write & read what they are doing, also talk with their classmates and listen the instructions.
It is motivating because thy have the control of the use of digital camera & to create a good story using daily language.
Finally this activity is appropriate for all kinds of personalities because they can develop the topic that they want to do in a comfortable environment with authentic audience & with a clear objetive.....develop creativity in the student in an motivating way.

Podcast!!!!!

ESL Podcast!!

http://a4esl.org/podcasts/

Intermediate Student

http://www.betteratenglish.com/category/levels/intermediate/

http://www.eslpod.com/website/#

My Student!!

Self introduction: http://www.eltpodcast.com/archive/oc/selfintro.html

Plain English:

What is a podcast: http://www.commoncraft.com/podcasting

http://commoncraft.com/

RSS: http://commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english

To help Gina with her Spanish!!

Beginners learners: http://www.notesinspanish.com/category/beginners-podcast/

To read and listen: http://www.rollingrs.com/

to download to your ipod: http://spanish-podcast.com/

Summary -------> Comment......

REVIEW OF CONNECTED SPEECH

Protea Textware Pty Ltd
Reviewed by Joy Egbert,

Vol. 8, Num. 1, January 2004, pp. 24-28.

“Many pronunciation experts agree that pronunciation teaching and learning must be situated in communicative contexts” (Fraser, 1999; Levis, 1999; Otlowski, 1998; Wennerstrom, 1999)

Connected Speech (CS):

It is software that it is used in classroom with the aim of improving clarity and accuracy of spoken communication, also helps students to develop effective communication skills and in terms of evaluation the CS uses recognition of speech and tells the student if the sound that they made is acceptably.

The role of the teacher working with this software:

It must be a facilitator rather than error corrector or ultimate speech model and in this role, the teacher can offer various models, provide opportunities for practice, suggest specific techniques, and give encouragement and advice to learners as they work toward intelligibility.

Morley (1991) calls this role the "speech coach."

This review talks about the different uses that we can do with the CS software in terms of using it in classes, it mentions the drawbacks and advantages of its uses also mentions that there is no interaction as the personal interaction with the real interests.